Wine Mart hopes to take over the former Nuvo Lounge site in Ewing

EWING — Cranbury resident Nikhil Sukhadia is new to the business scene in Ewing, but he has high hopes for a troubled property.

Nikhil, president of Wine Mart Corp., is hoping to purchase Nuvo Lounge, the Ewingville Road night spot that has been the location of several violent crimes in the past 18 months, including a gang-related homicide.

Nikhil and his business partner, company vice president Vakharia Kiritkumar, of Lenexa, Kan., filed an application with the Division of Alcohol Beverage Control and the Ewing Township liquor control board on Jan. 17 for permission to transfer the liquor license currently held by Nuvo Lounge, should the duo purchase the location from current owner Larry Prempeh.

“It would be like a discount liquor store, where people get the best prices in town,” said Sukhadia during a phone interview yesterday. “They get the best prices and the best of the wine.” The location would also feature a small bar, which is required by state code based on the type of liquor license the establishment is seeking to transfer.

Nuvo Lounge has been closed to regular business for the past few months. Township police have complained that the nightclub required a lot of their attention, and residents were intensely fearful that violence there would spill over into their neighborhoods. Prempeh attempted to appease the township with changes, including age restrictions for clientele, but complaints about the establishment did not let up.

Township officials and council members are reviewing the new liquor store application.
The council is the authority with the power to grant permission for the license transfer.

The store would be called “Wine Mart” and would include a selection of wine and other liquor Sukhadia said, and it would likely take three to four months for the paperwork and site work to be completed before it could officially open.

Sukhadia has experience in the local liquor industry, and said that the venture will provide a good service to residents and alleviate past troubles with prior owners.
“Ewing Township is happy that we are putting up something new here,” he said. “We are just starting fresh.”

Mayor Bert Steinmann said that the news is positive for residents.

“I think it is better for the community, not that places like Nuvo don’t have a place (in town),” he said.

As police continued to be dispatched to Nuvo Lounge to disperse fights and investigate shootings and other violent incidents, officials prepared formal charges to revoke or suspend the establishment’s liquor license.

The hearing to impose possible penalties was postponed last month for a second time pending news of the possible sale.

Council president Kathleen Wollert said she thinks a liquor store would be more popular than Nuvo. “I think it would be much preferred,” she said.

“It would certainly be preferred by the residents of the area, and it would alleviate a lot of the problems we saw when it was operating as a club.”

She said a liquor store would “calm” activity in the area.

A Lily Lane resident agreed with Wollert, and while he declined to provide his name, he said the announcement was welcome news in his neighborhood, which is just across Ewingville Road from the property.